Llandudno law graduate jailed for two years after attempted robbery

LAW graduate Scott Roberts was so drunk that he could not remember trying to rob a local bus driver.

Despite there being other passengers on the Number 15 Arriva Wales bus from Llysfaen to Conwy on June 25, Roberts produced some form of weapon and told driver Stephen Thomas “I want all your money otherwise I will do you with this.”

The driver told him he only had nine pounds in change and asked Roberts if he thought it was worth going to prison for that amount?

But Roberts said he had more money in his pocket and said: “I will do you with this, your job is not worth it.”

The driver got up, shouted and pressed the alarm.

Roberts went to get his shopping bag, got off the bus and walked away.

The 36-year-old who lived in a flat at Craig y Don, Llandudno, admitted attempted robbery and was jailed for two years.

Mr Recorder Richard Williams said Roberts had consumed a large amount of alcohol mixed with his medication and Mr Thomas generously allowed him onto the bus.

But as he was driving, Roberts effectively “held him up”.

Prosecuting barrister Owen Edwards said the driver, who had subsequently had to take time off work, and was wary of people standing close to where he was driving when he returned to work, saw a weapon, a piece of metal the shape of a pen with two sharp spikes sticking out of it. It was not known what it was.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Thomas told how he had driven for Arriva Wales for ten years, nothing like that had ever happened before, and it had a lasting effect upon him.

CCTV at the bus stops and on the bus showed Roberts getting on and off but the robbery bid was not recorded because of the angle of the camera.

Interviewed, he said that he was so drunk he could not remember what he had done although it was not the sort of thing he would have said, he explained.

Jonathan Austin, defending, said Roberts, alaw graduate who had done nothing in the law field after graduation but had worked in the catering industry, was under the care of his GP and community mental health nurse who was on significant medication for depression and anxiety, which he had mixed with alcohol.

“It may have been seen as something of a joke in the drunken recesses of his mind but the reality is that the bus driver saw and heard what he did and set the alarm going,” Mr Austin said.